Mitigating the effects of a "crash and wipe"

[Sp@nky]

Let me start with saying I\'m impressed with the quality of the tech demo. I wish many of the beta stuff I get would run as well as this alfa.

I mainly have problem with client crashes due to memory errors (reported elsewhere by others)

The only side effect I\'ve notice is a character wipe (sometime only partial). Most of us spend a lot of time digging ourselves out the tedious begining of rat and clacker killing, so when we are face with restarting due to a \"crash and wipe\" ... well it is a bit more than frustrating.

I would like to propose implementing a way to return to the state of the previous log on, at least we would only lose the gains of the last online session.

Thanks for a very entertaining game, keep up the good work

[darkw00t]

I think it would be good to start again.. new skills and everything but... there should be something you can have to keep but i am not going to be much of a warrior after wipe so it won\'t matter much

[Sp@nky]

well starting all over again is easy, create a new character.
I have done a few to try out the effects of different stats.

But progressing in the game requires the character evolve.
Bigger and better adventures, this to me this is what keeps the game fun. So the wipe really hurts.

[Karyuu]

The wipe isn\'t done without reason. If I understood correctly what wipe you are referring to, such things occur because of need for adjustment of character growth, until a \"fairer\" balance is found. This is pre-alpha, we\'re just testing things out.

[Sp@nky]

the wipe i\'m talking about is due (at least I think) to my client software crashing. In 2 instances I logged back in after the 30 second wait and had no inventory/money/... left.

[Karyuu]

Ah, I misunderstood :)

I don\'t think I\'ve ever heard of this happening, however. Are you sure it hasn\'t been the lag not loading the inventory? This is definitely some sort of error that must be looked into.

[Sp@nky]

It\'s not a lag, the second time it happened, I had a long discussion with an advisor (no GM available). He had me look a few time.

[Drey]

sometimes when the server crashes like a few skill points van be forgotten... and i have rarely heard of inventories being lost... but not on plain old client crashes. are you sure you are sure its all gone

[Sp@nky]

It seems to be a bug, and not a permanent state.
When I cashed-in my next look, my cash jumped back to it\'s pre-wipe state.

I need to see it if I can find a way to do the same with weapons (maybe a trade) I\'ll post if I fugure it out.

[Sp@nky]

My trias are in the buy/sell window but not in inventory.
I\'m reposting as a bug.

[Moogie]

The server will only save your character after certain events, such as zoning to another map. If you gain experience or items and then crash before you switch areas, you will lose everything you gained since the last time the server saved you.

A /save command would therefore be pretty useful, imo.

[stfrn]

Hm, your location is not saved unless you change locations (IE, new map, teleport, /unstick, maybe other things) but I\'m pretty sure that when you transfer items or get training it saves to the server. Infact, I could paste the code that does so if you don\'t beleive me
The thing is that some things like location are not vital, so the server only saves it when something important changes, or you log off. Items truely being lost would be the result of the server not actually saving anything when it should, which should not be common.

There are actually two inventory bugs, one where it takes a while to first load anything, and the more recent bug where it forgets to load money to just your inventory.

so in coclusion: yup, some bugs, but nothing to wish for, besides general bug fixing... erm, I better run away before you think I can fix those

[Rage McCloud]

i dont think that is right because i have fought rats and then crashed without changing worlds and also i have fought mercs and not changed... but still had all the things i had before i crashed... and i forgot what i was going to say that might help...

[Neryam]

Very most likely when you kill the rat and get experience/loot and all the rest of it it saves to the server.

So basically every action except moving would save to the server I think.

[Seytra]

A crash of the client cannot influence the state your char is in, because everything is stored serverside. Therefore, the only time when a crash can take things off your char is when the server crashes before it saved your char.
This is something that I have been wondering about. Before the great wipe (and what you describe is not a wipe, even if things would have been lost permanently, sp please dn\'t call it \"wipe\", this is confusing. ) the server could crash but things were never lost. Now the server seems to be saving only in very few instances, which is bad IMO.
At least it should save when stats or items are gained / lost. This doesn\'t happen too often to allow a DB access (maybe use a delay of a few seconds to possibly accumulate things, like training, before saving). The position, which could create massive load on the DB, is of lesser importance.

Edit: a crash of the client does influence the state your account is in. Example: the chaincrash error which ends in 161. This almost always occurs when trying to log back in after the client crashed, including by the same error (which can lead to chains of crashing).
This even happens when you don\'t relog immediately but shut down the computer and let it sit without power for a week. Therefore, there is something left over serverside when one crashes.
I will have to find out if this applies to rejoining using the char that was loaded when the crash occured, or if it also happens when you log back in using another char on the same account.

Note that this does not always happen. AFAICS, it happens with a ~ 50% chance.